even more 30 second book reviews
by John at 11/15/2004 10:50:00 AM
The River Why - David James Duncan
(Recommended by Bill) I read this book in a weekend. I really flew through it because I was enjoying it - it was funny and clever and I wanted to learn what the book was trying to tell me. But when I finished it, I thought that ultimately it didn't have much significance for me. Maybe I didn't get it, or maybe it wasn't supposed to have any. Anyway, we should all be so lucky to find the meaning of life and true love at twenty.
Iron Sunrise - Charles Stross
This is a sequel to Singularity Sky, which I reviewed a while ago. It features two or three of the same main characters, but you need not have read the former to "get" this. It's an interesting story of megadeaths, mind control totalitarianism, and causality weapons research. Stross keeps the action fast paced, but the characters are fleshed out and empathetic (is that the right word?). It features occasional over-the-top brutality that reminds me of Iain M. Banks Culture novels. Good stuff for SF fans, if you don't mind your stories a little dark.
Camelot 30K - Robert L. Forward
This poor book. See, Forward is a pretty clever guy - a physicist, I think - and he writes "hard" SF that is based only on current science fact. No warp drives or transporters. His thing is coming up with outlandish but plausible alien worlds. This particular book has some neat ideas about life on a Kuiper Belt object, but it is so clunky and hard to read and THE MYSTERY is just lurking there the whole time that I just didn't enjoy it. I read the similar Dragon's Egg a decade or so ago and I remember liking that one, so maybe it is just this book. Or maybe it's me.
Distraction - Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling was, I understand, a kind of cyberpunk god. I never read much by him that I recall (probably some short stories) except for the very cool novel The Difference Engine that he wrote with William Gibson, another cyberpunk god. Thing is, neither The Difference Engine or this novel are cyberpunk, and that is OK because I hear cyberpunk is dead. This story is about US politics in the year 2040. He sets up a very plausible scenario about a bankrupt, fractured nation that is rapidly declining in world power (the USA lost the economic war against the Chinese when they just decided to give away our intellectual property rights and are currently involved in a cold war with the Dutch over rising ocean levels). Anyway, it's about what a New England political campaign director does after he gets his Senator elected, as he tries to confound the plans of a Louisiana governor/tyrant. It was pretty good.
America the Broke: How the Reckless Spending of The White House and Congress are Bankrupting Our Country and Destroying Our Children's Future - Gerald J. Swanson
This book has a very long, descriptive title that pretty much tells you all you need to know except the details. I've already talked about this book a bit elsewhere. It is an interesting, non-partisan take on the current fiscal problems facing the US. Is it alarmist? Maybe, but I thought it was mostly realistic. It makes me want to start saving some of my money in Euros. It even proposes some solutions to the high deficits, looming debt, and upcoming meltdown of Medicare and Medicaid. No, Mr. Bush, more tax cuts aren't the right answer.
The System of the World - Neal Stephenson
This is the last book of The Baroque Cycle. If you read the first two, why would you stop now? It's just as good as the last two. It features phosphorus time bombs, coin counterfeiters, Peter the Great, debate over who invented the calculus first, Logic Mills and The Engine for Raising Water by Fire, Solomon's Gold, and an escape attempt from the Tower of London. And that is just the first third of the novel. Joe Bob says check it out.
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Also, I'm looking for book recommendations. I've made a list of stuff to read, but on my own I have a hard time finding good stuff outside of specific genres, if you know what I mean, and I want to branch out. Maybe you could put some in the comments? No reviews necessary.
(Recommended by Bill) I read this book in a weekend. I really flew through it because I was enjoying it - it was funny and clever and I wanted to learn what the book was trying to tell me. But when I finished it, I thought that ultimately it didn't have much significance for me. Maybe I didn't get it, or maybe it wasn't supposed to have any. Anyway, we should all be so lucky to find the meaning of life and true love at twenty.
Iron Sunrise - Charles Stross
This is a sequel to Singularity Sky, which I reviewed a while ago. It features two or three of the same main characters, but you need not have read the former to "get" this. It's an interesting story of megadeaths, mind control totalitarianism, and causality weapons research. Stross keeps the action fast paced, but the characters are fleshed out and empathetic (is that the right word?). It features occasional over-the-top brutality that reminds me of Iain M. Banks Culture novels. Good stuff for SF fans, if you don't mind your stories a little dark.
Camelot 30K - Robert L. Forward
This poor book. See, Forward is a pretty clever guy - a physicist, I think - and he writes "hard" SF that is based only on current science fact. No warp drives or transporters. His thing is coming up with outlandish but plausible alien worlds. This particular book has some neat ideas about life on a Kuiper Belt object, but it is so clunky and hard to read and THE MYSTERY is just lurking there the whole time that I just didn't enjoy it. I read the similar Dragon's Egg a decade or so ago and I remember liking that one, so maybe it is just this book. Or maybe it's me.
Distraction - Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling was, I understand, a kind of cyberpunk god. I never read much by him that I recall (probably some short stories) except for the very cool novel The Difference Engine that he wrote with William Gibson, another cyberpunk god. Thing is, neither The Difference Engine or this novel are cyberpunk, and that is OK because I hear cyberpunk is dead. This story is about US politics in the year 2040. He sets up a very plausible scenario about a bankrupt, fractured nation that is rapidly declining in world power (the USA lost the economic war against the Chinese when they just decided to give away our intellectual property rights and are currently involved in a cold war with the Dutch over rising ocean levels). Anyway, it's about what a New England political campaign director does after he gets his Senator elected, as he tries to confound the plans of a Louisiana governor/tyrant. It was pretty good.
America the Broke: How the Reckless Spending of The White House and Congress are Bankrupting Our Country and Destroying Our Children's Future - Gerald J. Swanson
This book has a very long, descriptive title that pretty much tells you all you need to know except the details. I've already talked about this book a bit elsewhere. It is an interesting, non-partisan take on the current fiscal problems facing the US. Is it alarmist? Maybe, but I thought it was mostly realistic. It makes me want to start saving some of my money in Euros. It even proposes some solutions to the high deficits, looming debt, and upcoming meltdown of Medicare and Medicaid. No, Mr. Bush, more tax cuts aren't the right answer.
The System of the World - Neal Stephenson
This is the last book of The Baroque Cycle. If you read the first two, why would you stop now? It's just as good as the last two. It features phosphorus time bombs, coin counterfeiters, Peter the Great, debate over who invented the calculus first, Logic Mills and The Engine for Raising Water by Fire, Solomon's Gold, and an escape attempt from the Tower of London. And that is just the first third of the novel. Joe Bob says check it out.
-----
Also, I'm looking for book recommendations. I've made a list of stuff to read, but on my own I have a hard time finding good stuff outside of specific genres, if you know what I mean, and I want to branch out. Maybe you could put some in the comments? No reviews necessary.
Here are a few books that may be out of your preferred genre that I'd recommend:
The Brothers K, David James Duncan (note: I have been trying to read The River Why and haven't been able to get into like this one...it's long, but worth the trip!)
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
White Teeth, Zadie Smith
The Autograph Man, Zadie Smith
Let me know what you think if you decide to read any!
Okay so The River Why wasn't all that great, but I did read it on a boat 1100 miles out at sea! The ingedients on a bag of flour would have been titilating at that point.
The Ingredients on a Bag of Flour, huh? Thanks! I'll be sure to check and see if my library has that.
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